As a more casual D3 player who played D1/2 back in the day, the AH was the main thing that turned me off from D3.
If they have to replace the AH with something, then I'd like to see a TRADING system that:
1) Requires the player to be on-line for their items to show up in the listings,
2) Allows you to flag items in your inventory as available for sale and/or trade,
3) BIN price can be set, with the option for accepting offers (trades or buy for gold) in real-time.
4) Provide some obfuscation of the player listing the item so you don't get spammed / griefed by someone unhappy that you won't accept their offer of 1g for your Unobtanium Level 5000 Helm that is clearly worth at least 5g.
This would allow you to keep playing the game rather than sitting in the AH managing your inventory and auctions. It would also reduce the amount of stuff that you have to sort / search through when looking for items. And it would allow you to buy an available item "now" rather than waiting for an auction with no BIN or an absurdly high BIN to complete.
D3 is fine, but they didn't take any chances with it. D1 and D2 each knocked my socks off back in the day, but D3 just feels like D2+ or maybe D2.5. I haven't messed with the RMAH, but interacting with the (gold) AH is tiresome and I really wish it was somehow better integrated with the game.
It's good to know that I'm not hitting any caps, even if I may be getting more STR or VIT than I might "need".
I just boosted my MF% and am starting to get some usable drops. In the beta I used crafted gear almost exclusively, but at least in "Normal" difficulty, the crafted stuff never seemed to be better than what I could find on the AH, even with the "max buyout price" set low.
I'm back to DW now, but I think I'll just swap back and forth as I find good deals on weapons. I got my skills tweaked a bit and the damage I'm taking has settled down, but I think I'll keep a shield in my pack since it's just a matter of time before things get rough again.
I just finished Act 1 in Hell with my Barbarian and I need some help with regards to keeping my gear up to par without breaking the bank (no RMAH, just collecting gold as I go and selling items for gold in the AH).
1) What STR and VIT should I be targeting relative to my level? Is there a soft or hard cap on stats?
2) It is usually pretty obvious when my armor needs to be upgraded (I die quick), but how close should I be keeping my armor level to my character's level? A level differential of 5-7 seems to be the falling off point.
3) For leveling through Hell, I've been trying 2H, SnB and DW... do you guys typically switch between 2H or DW and SnB depending on the difficulty of the mobs or just stick with one? Obviously the defense is better with SnB, but 2H w/ Frenzy stacked up is more entertaining (but I'm not sure if I'm really killing any faster when its all said and done).
I get why swapping skills would dramatically change the gameplay in a Hardcore or Competitive environment, but for typical play the timer seems unnecessary. I typically stick with the skills that I like, but I do try new skills when they become available. So the timer usually only comes into play now when I'm switching from a skill I don't like back to one I do like. I'm not going to keep using a skill I don't like instead of waiting 15s for the timer, which makes the timer nothing more than an annoyance standing between having less fun and getting back to having more fun.
If anything I actually preferred it when you could only change skills at the shrines. I would swap, test and swap until I found a setup I liked and then head back out into the fray. From a gameplay and lore perspective that actually made some sense (similar to "class trainers" in MMO's), rather than the current system where you can switch to a new skill instantly, but if you want to switch back to an old skill they slap an arbitrary 15s timer on the process.
I don't think Blizzard has ever made a game that was challenging to a relatively up-to-date PC (I haven't play WoW since the beta, so maybe some of the expansions upped the ante).
I totally get that the beta is very limited from a content perspective (quests, lore, etc.), but I just wonder how much of what we do see (gear, abilities, animations, etc.) are just place-holders versus the version that will actually make it into the game.
And I'm definitely not saying that they should dump the Diablo formula, but it seems like they are playing it -very- safe (especially when you look at the differences between D1 and D2 and the amount of change that has occurred in PC gaming over the twelve years since D2).
-gold picker upper companions again, I MISS THEM!!
Give us something... While it might be considered "challenging" by some, the challenge is easily outweighed by the "annoyance". There is nothing fun about all the clicking and re-clicking required to pick up gold much of the time (I hope this is just a bug that gets fixed or an adjustment that still needs to be made). The +loot radius bonus on gear helps, but I'd rather choose gear based on it making my character more powerful or unique, NOT less annoying to play. Loot doesn't bother me as much because so much of it is worthless trash now anyway.
I'm just wondering how much Blizzard is holding back in the beta. At a mid to high level, D3 definitely feels like an old glove to me, in both a good and bad way. I feel right at home playing D3 which is good, but it feels more like an update than the next generation of Diablo. And I was running D3 on a stock Radeon HD 5770 smoothly at the maximum settings, so you definitely don't need a monster rig (at least in the beta).
It is fortunate that "waiting" does not require you to sacrifice anything. Heck, not waiting doesn't really require you to sacrifice much either, unless Blizzard has a "gave up on waiting" blacklist that they put you on if you decide not to wait.
I liked the idea of checking your loot and clicking on the worthless stuff to salvage it... even if it wasn't for much material. Besides, you had the option to leave it on the ground if you didn't want to bother.
I liked being able to salvage everything better than portaling back and forth to town every time your loot bag gets full to visit the blacksmith.
Just make the white stuff non-magical and salvageable. If I'm back-tracking through an area, having to do a double-take on a bunch of junk loot laying around is no fun.
Initially I was disappointed because the beta really doesn't have much of a "revolutionary" slap in the face... but the more I see and experience, the more I like the evolution and the fact that it feels like a comfortable old shoe.
And I didn't jump on the anticipation and hype bandwagon back in 2008 (it is Blizzard after all), so my rage build-up was minimal if not non-existant.
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If they have to replace the AH with something, then I'd like to see a TRADING system that:
1) Requires the player to be on-line for their items to show up in the listings,
2) Allows you to flag items in your inventory as available for sale and/or trade,
3) BIN price can be set, with the option for accepting offers (trades or buy for gold) in real-time.
4) Provide some obfuscation of the player listing the item so you don't get spammed / griefed by someone unhappy that you won't accept their offer of 1g for your Unobtanium Level 5000 Helm that is clearly worth at least 5g.
This would allow you to keep playing the game rather than sitting in the AH managing your inventory and auctions. It would also reduce the amount of stuff that you have to sort / search through when looking for items. And it would allow you to buy an available item "now" rather than waiting for an auction with no BIN or an absurdly high BIN to complete.
It's good to know that I'm not hitting any caps, even if I may be getting more STR or VIT than I might "need".
I just boosted my MF% and am starting to get some usable drops. In the beta I used crafted gear almost exclusively, but at least in "Normal" difficulty, the crafted stuff never seemed to be better than what I could find on the AH, even with the "max buyout price" set low.
I'm back to DW now, but I think I'll just swap back and forth as I find good deals on weapons. I got my skills tweaked a bit and the damage I'm taking has settled down, but I think I'll keep a shield in my pack since it's just a matter of time before things get rough again.
1) What STR and VIT should I be targeting relative to my level? Is there a soft or hard cap on stats?
2) It is usually pretty obvious when my armor needs to be upgraded (I die quick), but how close should I be keeping my armor level to my character's level? A level differential of 5-7 seems to be the falling off point.
3) For leveling through Hell, I've been trying 2H, SnB and DW... do you guys typically switch between 2H or DW and SnB depending on the difficulty of the mobs or just stick with one? Obviously the defense is better with SnB, but 2H w/ Frenzy stacked up is more entertaining (but I'm not sure if I'm really killing any faster when its all said and done).
If anything I actually preferred it when you could only change skills at the shrines. I would swap, test and swap until I found a setup I liked and then head back out into the fray. From a gameplay and lore perspective that actually made some sense (similar to "class trainers" in MMO's), rather than the current system where you can switch to a new skill instantly, but if you want to switch back to an old skill they slap an arbitrary 15s timer on the process.
I totally get that the beta is very limited from a content perspective (quests, lore, etc.), but I just wonder how much of what we do see (gear, abilities, animations, etc.) are just place-holders versus the version that will actually make it into the game.
And I'm definitely not saying that they should dump the Diablo formula, but it seems like they are playing it -very- safe (especially when you look at the differences between D1 and D2 and the amount of change that has occurred in PC gaming over the twelve years since D2).
Give us something... While it might be considered "challenging" by some, the challenge is easily outweighed by the "annoyance". There is nothing fun about all the clicking and re-clicking required to pick up gold much of the time (I hope this is just a bug that gets fixed or an adjustment that still needs to be made). The +loot radius bonus on gear helps, but I'd rather choose gear based on it making my character more powerful or unique, NOT less annoying to play. Loot doesn't bother me as much because so much of it is worthless trash now anyway.
I liked being able to salvage everything better than portaling back and forth to town every time your loot bag gets full to visit the blacksmith.
And I didn't jump on the anticipation and hype bandwagon back in 2008 (it is Blizzard after all), so my rage build-up was minimal if not non-existant.